On April 24, 2013, an eight-story garment factory in Bangladesh's Rana Plaza collapsed, killing 1130 workers and injuring another 2500. This despite many advanced warnings and complaints about the safety of the building. The disaster became emblematic of the many problems inherent in the "fast fashion" business model of how clothes are made for us first world consumers by what amounts to slave labor in the two-thirds world.

Peter Ochs is a leader in a bold new approach to scriptures that intentionally attempts to free reading and interpreting the scriptures from the confines of Modernity. In May 2002 he published a summary of the goals of this project in The Journal of Scriptural Reasoning, (see link on this page). It includes a fearless claim that scriptures are essential for the ills of Modernity.

(Resources listed here reference more than one reading and are normally shorter than the resources listed under the individual texts above. If you are looking to link the readings, check these resources.)

("I recall the story of a little girl who, when trains were popular transportation, was taking her first train ride with her parents. As night descended, the mother took the girl, who was clearly quite anxious, and placed her on the upper bunk of the sleeper. She told her little one that up there she would be nearer to God and that God would watch over her...")

("It seems that one day an artist was commissioned by a wealthy man to paint something that would depict peace. After a great deal of thought, the artist painted a beautiful country scene. There were green fields with cows standing in them, birds were flying in the blue sky and a lovely little village lay in a distant valley...")

("One time a Sunday School teacher was talking about the end of time - about Heaven and the Kingdom of God and the New Jerusalem. She told her class of youngsters about the 'crowns of glory' that await people who believe. 'Now tell me,' she said at the close of the lesson, 'Who will get the biggest crown?'..." and other illustrations)

It may be that Lydia has a predatory sea snail to thank for her profit. Imperial purple, also called Tyrian purple, begins its life as a secretion from a predatory sea snail. Specifically it comes from bolinus brandaris, which Linnaeus originally called Murex brandaris. The murex snails, found in the Mediterranean world, can be "milked" for the secretion or, more easily for human harvesters, the snails can be dried and crushed to obtain the dye.